Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

We’re gonna take a little break from our sermon series on the I AM statements.

We have two more of those statements to look at, and we’ll pick that back up next week.

This morning I want us to look at Ephesians chapter 6. We’re just gonna jump in the morning, so go ahead and turn to chapter 6 and look down with me at verse 10.

Ephesians 6:

This is the word of the Lord.

Ephesians 6:13 tells us to “take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.”

This verse is followed by descriptions of various pieces of armor that God has given the Christian.

Prayer

But what is this armor, and how do we make us of it?

I’ve been thinking about this passage for a couple of months now, but I just wasn’t sure when a good time to preach it would be.

last night at bible study, we looked at how to have a quiet time, and it got me thinking about how important studying God’s word is for our lives, which got me thinking about this passage.

And this is one of those passages that if you grew up in the church, you’ve probably heard over and over again.

It’s really tempting to just skim over it and ignore it, but doing so is dangerous to our spiritual health.

As Christians, as a youth group seeking to follow Jesus, we have an enemy who does not want us to worship God.

It’s the same enemy who tempted Adam and Eve in the garden, it’s the same enemy who tempted Jesus in the wilderness, it’s the same enemy that has found a foothold in all of the evil present in our world, and as seen in verse 11, it’s the devil.

It says “put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of he devil.”

There are three things in this verse.

Some may even wonder at the relevance of the metaphor.

Why would the average Christian need armor?

We have an enemy, The Devil, who is scheming against us, meaning he will attack us

Throughout Scripture, we see that Christians are engaged in a spiritual battle.

We are often warned against underestimating our enemy, Satan (1 Peter 5:8).

There is armor that we can put on to protect us from these attacks

Even worse than underestimating our enemy would be not even realizing that there is a war going on.

We are to stand up against these attacks, meaning we don’t just take the attacks, but we fight back.

But even worse than underestimating our enemy would be not even realizing that there is a war going on.

Our Enemy

Think of it like this:

Let’s look first at who our enemy isn’t.

I bet that if you guys were asked by someone outside of church who your enemy is, you wouldn’t say the devil, you’d probably name a specific person.

Most likely it would be a person who took something from you, someone who hurt you physically or emotionally, someone who caused you some kind of pain or suffering.

Who you consider your enemy would be another human.

But Paul is very clear in verse 12: we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

Our enemy isn’t other people.

Now, other people may have done terrible, sinful things that have really hurt you.

And as mad as that makes us, as sad as that makes us, they aren’t our enemies.

Again, our enemy is the devil and our enemy is his minions.

And he will attack us.

He may use others to do that attacking, or he may use the sins of others to attack us and to tempt us into anger or jealousy or whatever, but we have to know that it is him that is our enemy, not who or what he uses.

<img class="alignleft size-large wp-image-5750" src="https://reasonabletheology.org/wp-content/uploads/D-Day-728x410.jpg"

alt="D-Day" width="728" height="410" srcset="https://reasonabletheology.org/wp-content/uploads/D-Day-728x410.jpg

728w, https://reasonabletheology.org/wp-content/uploads/D-Day-600x338.jpg

600w, https://reasonabletheology.org/wp-content/uploads/D-Day-710x400.jpg

710w, https://reasonabletheology.org/wp-content/uploads/D-Day-300x169.jpg

300w, https://reasonabletheology.org/wp-content/uploads/D-Day.jpg

740w" sizes="(max-width: 728px) 100vw, 728px" />

The Armor

It’s June 1944.

After a 24-hour weather delay, the largest military operation in the history of warfare was about to begin.

But, thankfully, there is armor that we can use to protect us from these attacks.

In Ephesians, the apostle Paul is writing to the church from prison.

Up to this point, he has been discussing the truth of the gospel and explaining how believers are to live in light of that truth.Being a prisoner of the Roman Empire, Paul would have had close interactions with Roman soldiers.

It is in the soldier’s armor that the apostle finds a fitting metaphor for how God has equipped us with protection from a powerful spiritual enemy.And this armor gives us the ability to stand firm in our faith, and to fight back against the schemes of the Devil.

And this armor is something that all christians are commanded to put on.

So, we’re just gonna look at it piece by piece.

In Ephesians, the apostle Paul is writing to the church from prison.

Up to this point, he has been discussing the truth of the gospel and explaining how believers are to live in light of that truth.

Being a prisoner of the Roman Empire, Paul would have had close interactions with Roman soldiers.

It is in the soldier’s armor that the apostle finds a fitting metaphor for how God has equipped us with protection from a powerful spiritual enemy.And this armor gives us the ability to stand firm in our faith, and to fight back against the schemes of the Devil.

And this armor is something that all christians are commanded to put on.

So, we’re just gonna look at it piece by piece.

Preceded by an aerial bombardment of coastal defenses and 13 thousand paratroopers dropped behind enemy lines, five thousand ships and 156 thousand soldiers are about to storm the beaches of Normandy, France.

Belt of Truth

D-Day has arrived.

A soldier’s belt wasn’t a final accessory to hold their pants up.

It was an important piece of the armor, which other pieces fastened onto and which also held his sword.

Just as the belt was the foundational element of the Roman soldier’s armor, truth is at the center of the armor of God.

Christians must hold to what is true because the truth gives us a firm foundation on which to stand for Jesus Christ.

What is truth?

Scripture is.

When Jesus prayed to the Father in he said, “Sanctify them by your truth.

Your word is truth.”God’s

Word is inerrant and unchanging, and so we continue to uphold the truth of Scripture regardless of how the culture changes.

Scripture should have an effect on the way we live.

We must be loving yet uncompromising when it comes to truth.

To do anything less would be to chip away at our own foundation, the result of which could only be our downfall.

Just before the invasion of Normandy, General Eisenhower issued a now-famous letter to the “Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Forces.”

A soldier’s belt wasn’t a final accessory to hold their pants up.

It was an important piece of the armor, which other pieces fastened onto and which also held his sword.

Breastplate of Righteousness

In it he let them know that they were “about to embark upon the great crusade” to “bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.”

Just as the belt was the foundational element of the Roman soldier’s armor, truth is at the center of the armor of God.

Faithfully living out the truth is part of what it means to put on the “breastplate of righteousness.”

To be a Christian and walk in a way unworthy of the calling to which we have been called is to march into battle with a dint in your armor.

But there is another sense in which the Christian puts on this piece of armor.

says our righteousness “is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.”

When we are made righteous through faith in Christ, we are forever made right with God.

So many of Satan’s attacks are deflected by knowing that we are righteous in the eyes of God.

But Satan will often attack us by making us doubt this.

He tries to make us doubt that we have been made children of God.

He tries to make us doubt we have been adopted into God’s family, and have been made righteous by the blood of Jesus.

He tries to make us doubt, and we’re tempted to try and work for our salvation.

We’re tempted to try and work for something that has already been given to us, and then we become frustrated, because we can’t do it.

And so we’re in the midst of a spiritual battle, having forgotten who we are and our armor has been damaged.

So, if you’re doubting that this morning, know that if you are in Christ, you have been made righteous.

In instilling confidence in the invasion force, General Eisenhower did not in any way suggest that the task would be easy or that the enemy would be defeated quickly .

Christians must hold to what is true because the truth gives us a firm foundation on which to stand for Jesus Christ.

Faithfully living out the truth is part of what it means to put on the “breastplate of righteousness.”

The Gospel of Peace